1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method, system, program, and electronic storage media for implementing interlinking pages of information, especially Hypertext Mark-Up Language (HTML) pages.
2. Description of the Related Art
One of the rapidly expanding sources of information and documentation is the xe2x80x9cWorld Wide Webxe2x80x9d (WWW) or Internet. Servers which provide access to information over the Internet typically utilize the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP). Oftentimes, textual information is implemented in a standard page description language such as the Hypertext Markup Language (HTML). HTML provides basic document formatting and allows the developer to specify xe2x80x9clinksxe2x80x9d to other servers and files. Use of an HTML-compliant client browser involves specification of a link via a Uniform Resource Locator or xe2x80x9cURLxe2x80x9d. Users may access an HTML document from over the Internet and then use an HTML browser to display the downloaded file. The advantage of such HTML browsers is that they can execute on many different computing environments and numerous types of operating systems. Thus, an information provider need only code a document in HTML to make that document available to just about every computing platform that provides Internet access.
HTML documents may include hypertext links, which are implemented as a display icon or a highlighted textual indicator. The HTML link represents a URL address of a another related HTML page of information. When a user selects a hypertext link with an input device, such as a mouse, the HTML browser generates a URL request for the document, such as the HTML page, that is addressed by the URL address. The URL can address a document at the same web site from which the current document came or from another different web site. Additionally, hypertext links can address locations within the current document to allow the user to xe2x80x9cjumpxe2x80x9d to various places within the document without having to manually search the document for the referenced location.
A document may be presented across multiple HTML pages. Each page would typically include HTML links. In this way, web site designers can disperse related information across HTML web pages to allow users to navigate through different sections of a document using the HTML links. For instance, the web site designer may encode a page or discrete section of a book or manual on different HTML pages or separate newspaper articles from a newspaper on separate HTML pages. Typically, an HTML page includes a navigation area that provides HTML links to different parts of the same document or the next, previous, or related pages.
The navigation of HTML documents can occur in a number of different contexts. One involves navigating within the same document. Frequently, there will be one, large hypertext document containing a great deal of content. Often this content is broken down into sections, chapters or other types of divisions, each of which contains links to pages including other sections of the document. At the beginning of the document, or at some other convenient location, there may be a navigation area in the form of an index or table of contents of hypertext links to the different sections, which may be maintained on the same page, different pages, and different pages at the same or different web site.
Regardless of the context in which web page navigation occurs, the placement of the hypertext links on the web page can greatly affect the efficiency of information navigation. Sometimes hypertext links to related information are placed sporadically throughout the HTML document. Such a design may cause the user to scroll through an entire document to locate a link.
One way to minimize this problem is to group the links together in one or more navigation areas. Currently, most web pages group hypertext links in constant sized navigational areas located on the HTML page. One disadvantage of this technique is that users often have widely varied space on their visual display, otherwise known as xe2x80x9cscreen real estate,xe2x80x9d in which to display content. The available screen real estate can vary from a very small screen on a small hand held Personal Digital Assistant (PDA) to a display area that has a height and width of 20xc3x9720 inches. If the navigation area consumes a greater amount of the screen, then there will be less available screen real estate to display the content on the HTML page. For this reason, constant sized navigation areas are often undesirable, especially for users with a small display screen as the navigation area may interfere or xe2x80x9ccrowd outxe2x80x9d the display of the content.
Another common technique is to include the navigation area in a frame. Frames are a feature supported by some, but not all, HTML browsers that enables the Web author to divide the browser display area into two or more sections (frames). The contents of each frame are taken from a different URL. Frames provide great flexibility in designing Web pages, although they presently are supported unevenly by current browsers. To divide a page into frames, each frame displays a separate HTML document. If a developer wanted to divide a page into two side by side frames, then one complete HTML document would be placed in the left frame and another complete HTML document in the right frame. In addition the developer would need to write a third HTML document as a master page. This master page contains the  less than FRAME greater than  tags which specify which HTML document belongs to each frame. FIG. 1 illustrates a prior art HTML page 100 employing frames for its navigation area. Page 100 consists of frames 102 and 103. Frame 102 is used for navigation about the web site. Frame 103 consists of the content for the page. Scroll bars 104 and 105 enable the user to view more content which is present on this page.
Framing is problematic because many HTML browsers do not support framing and the frame structures consume a significant amount of display real estate. For instance, the horizontal and vertical scroll bars appear in the frames when the navigational area is larger than the area allotted for the frame. Scroll bars consume display space (i.e. screen real estate) within the frame and cause the navigation to be more cumbersome to use. Framing is especially problematic for small display screens, in which the framing structures would consume a significant amount of the available screen real estate. Other disadvantages of frames include:
a. The user is tied to the way frames are implemented. The resulting navigation can only work the way the frames workxe2x80x94i.e. with scroll bars.
b. The default size must be specified. Frames must have a size specified in either pixels, or as a percentage of the total area. If the navigation size is increased (i.e. a section gets renamed and the resulting text is too long), then scroll bars may suddenly appear until the default size is changed as well.
c. Frames can be maximized into their own windows. This can be disadvantageous because too many windows may be difficult to manage by the user. Moreover, a window may be hard to locate if it is hidden underneath other windows.
Accordingly, there is a need in the art for an improved technique for providing navigation areas in a page of information, especially for HTML pages.
To overcome the limitations in the prior art described above, preferred embodiments disclose a system, method, program, and electronic storage media for providing at least one content area of information and n different sized navigation areas. There are n addressable locations for each content area. Each of the n addressable locations for one content area comprises the same content area with a different sized navigation area. Further, each of the n navigation areas includes at least one link to another addressable location with the same content area and a different sized navigation area.
In further embodiments, there are m content areas. In such case, n times m pages are provided such that each page includes one of the m content areas and one of the n navigation areas. Alternatively, there are n times m addressable locations and at least one page including multiple addressable locations. In such case, each addressable location includes one of the m content areas and one of the n navigation areas.
In still further embodiments, the content area may comprise a content type such as text, images, audio, movies, and three dimensional images. Further, the page may be implemented in an SGML document such that the links comprise hypertext links.
Preferred embodiments provide a design of interlinking pages for displaying an area of the same content with different size navigation areas. This design is particularly useful for implementing HTML type pages, especially for users having smaller screen displays and/or using older version HTML web browsers that do not support framing. The preferred embodiments allow the user to select the size of the navigation area to display with the content. In this way, the user may select a navigation area that is suitable to the user""s available screen real estate and browser capabilities.